Very interesting. Although it's suddenly less mysterious and mystical.

Still, don't you think there's some kind of figurative or thematic connection between the "gone to China" note and Master singing to him "I want to take you on a slow boat to China"? Doesn't seem like a stretch.

Did anyone else see Peggy's eye change to black during the exercise with Freddie? Its during the montage when Freddie is being heavily processed and is forced to touch each wall. Its filmed in such a unique way. We see The Master initiating the processing in wide shots, then suddenly we're in Freddie's POV, until finally we are Freddie, inside his head reliving flashbacks of love and wartime. The effect works similarly to a mirror for the audiences subconscious...if they allow it too. That might be the reason why so many audiences are angry; they doubt the authenticity of film, the process. We are being processed ourselves.

The motto of the Sea Org is "We Come Back". Its the belief that once they sign their billion year contract, it signifies eternal vigilance. The doubles and reoccurring motif is strong throughout. Peggy and Doris bear a striking resemblance to each other and ultimately leave Freddie. The man getting his picture taken at the department store coincidentally looks just like PSH. Maybe it is why PSH feels they have met. The singing both Doris and PSH have has the similar effect. Its of love; lingering slow love.

One of the first shots and last shot of the pic are of Freddie sleeping, dreaming. He changes, but instead of 90%, its closer to 2% like PTA discusses in an early Creative Screenwriting interview. The second to last scene when he reenacts the processing technique to the woman is so beautifully tender and true. Like you using the same pick up line twice, but in this case, he's just stealing it from the Master.

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"look hard at what pleases you and even harder at what doesn't" ~ carolyn forche

Dr Strangelove might be better suited for its War Room like architecture , but its Kubrickian nonetheless. Outside of maybe a inverted monolith like shape behind master, what makes you draw comparisons to 2001?

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"look hard at what pleases you and even harder at what doesn't" ~ carolyn forche

It's okay. Don't feel dirty because you clicked on that headline. This is as serious as an awkward Philadelphia bathroom hand job. That scene in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, in which Amy Adams's Peggy Dodd shows her husband (Philip Seymour Hoffman’s title character) who precisely is in charge of their relationship, is one of the film's more … memorable? (Is memorable the right word?) Arriving about an hour after an opening moment in which Joaquin Phoenix climaxes into the ocean, the Adams/Hoffman pas de deux made us remember that these three actors have all been forced to deal with the act on screen before. So which of the film's leads has been involved in the most memorable masturbation (or masturbation-adjacent) moments? We investigate.

Joaquin Phoenix

1. To Die ForPhoenix plays a young dude who is manipulated by a hot local TV news personality into killing her husband.

MomentWhile watching a weather report, Phoenix's character falls into a reverie where he imagines the weather girl (played by Nicole Kidman) speaking directly and dirtily to him. Solo time ensues.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most pleasurable, this is a ...10. He's a guy fantasizing about an attractive person on TV. Isn't this the essence of youthful male masturbation?

2. ParenthoodPhoenix plays an adolescent who likes to hang out with a paper bag. Or rather, the porn that is hidden inside the paper bag.

MomentWe obviously never see anything, but it is a plot point that gets dragged out for a bit and results in an awkward-funny scene between Keanu Reeves and Dianne Wiest in which he utters the line, "A few months ago, Garry got his first boner. Do you know what that is?"

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most pleasurable, this is a ...5. Teenage guilt. It's a buzzkill.

3. The MasterPhoenix plays the alcoholic, war-tortured disciple of a fifties-America cult leader.

MomentEarly on, after faux-humping and finger-banging a woman made of sand while his fellow sailors stare on in amusement and then discomfort, Phoenix vigorously empties himself into the incredibly blue waters of the Pacific Ocean. World War II has ended!

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most pleasurable, this is a ...Zero. We have trouble believing that this character actually takes pleasure in anything, so gnarled in body and spirit does he appear to be.

Philip Seymour Hoffman

1. HappinessIn this ironically titled film (lord is it depressing), Hoffman plays a sad, sweaty, unfortunate-looking man who likes to make obscene phone calls.

MomentHoffman's character calls up one of the female main characters and proceeds to ask her dirty uncomfortable questions while erotically massaging his junk. In one of the film's most shocking shots (literally), he ejaculates on the wall and then uses the substance to secure a postcard to the spot.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most pleasurable, this is a ...3. It doesn't seem as if he feels bad about any of this, but it's hard to believe there's not a deep self-loathing undergirding his sexytime phone calls.

2. The MasterHoffman plays the title character, the head of a nascent cult in postwar America.

MomentHe's on the receiving end of Amy Adams's ministrations. Hoffman grunts and moans and, oh, it's just very uncomfortable to watch.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most pleasurable, this is a ...2. It did the job, but dude just got served by his wife.

Amy Adams

1. JunebugAdams notched her breakout role (and first Academy Award nomination) in this 2005 indie film about a North Carolina prodigal son who brings his sophisticated British wife home with him to meet the family. Adams plays the sweet, overly talkative and very pregnant wife of the main character's reticent, angry brother.

MomentIn an attempt to feel a sense of connection to her distant, silent husband, Adams's character sadly touches herself to a picture of the two of them in happier times.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most pleasurable, this is a ...2. So sad. So. Sad.

2. Cruel Intentions 2A direct to video prequel to the 1999 high-school-set remake of Dangerous Liaisons, the film stars Adams in the role originally played by Sarah Michelle Gellar.

MomentSitting in Central Park (while drinking tea and being shadowed by a butler, naturally), Adams's character instructs a young charge on how to ride a horse. "Push up and down in the saddle … Now we need to add the back and forth motion … Up and down, back and forth, faster, faster … Now this time I really want you to grind into the saddle." The student falls off satisfied and Adams stands with a naughty grin on her face, having essentially used the horse as a proxy.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most pleasurable, this is a ...9. Everyone involved seems to have come out on the other side a happy camper. Except for the butler maybe?

3. The MasterAs the wife to nascent cult leader Lancaster Dodd, Adams's character is one of those behind-the-scenes spouses that have more power than is initially apparent.

MomentAdams jerks off her husband into a bathroom sink while ordering him to keep his philandering under wraps and to lay off the powerful moonshine produced by his protégé/guinea pig. Her disdainful hand wiping at scene's end is possibly the year's most masterful towel-related piece of acting.

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most pleasurable, this is a ...3. Again, that wiping of the soiled upper hand.

So, who is The Master's master masturbator?Amy Adams! While Hoffman delivers the most uncomfortable moment and Phoenix the most vigorous, Adams wins in terms of both number and variety.

The doubles and reoccurring motif is strong throughout. Peggy and Doris bear a striking resemblance to each other and ultimately leave Freddie. The man getting his picture taken at the department store coincidentally looks just like PSH.

While we're on the topic, the department store model and Master's daughter look very similar.

So i just watched it for a 2nd time last night and being able to put all the religion stuff aside, I sank my teeth into the relationships, basking in the father/son therapist/patient relationship between these two men. Some of the little choice made by the actors really blew me away this time around, and while i noticed them the first time, I was really able to see the film in a new light. This was a beautiful tragic love story. Both of these men felt like two halves of the same soul.

Obviously the processing scene is not only the best scene in the film, I'm tempted to argue that everything which comes between the lemonade turpentine hooch bookends is the greatest sequence PTA has put to celluloid. When i initially read this scene I loved it, as it stood out as the most powerful and intriguing part to read; I had to put the script down for a second and think before I could move on. With that said, it does appear different than the final film. For example, the first time he asks Freddie if he's ever had sex with someone in his family, in the script he says no - showing more of the affect the no blinking part had. It amazes me that PTA improved upon what I had read, adding further layers, and not just the hypnosis sequence. In general it more so came across like Dodd probing at Freddie with malice, deliberately brainwashing him in the script whereas in the film it was much more out of compassion. I should note that I believe a big part of this reaction is also what i brought to the table with my studies and personality, but i got a general sense that the audience would have reacted to it with more hatred for Dodd without seeing hoffman's performance.

Seeing the completed film it's apparent that both men have so much love for each other. Just look to Freddie's answer when Dodd asks "were you sent here to infiltrate me, by an agent of this world or another." (paraphrase), he holds his "no" in a way that has so much pleading compassion, he wants Dodd to believe him more than anything in the world. likewise later in the scene Dodd mirrors this love. After the hypnosis, Dodd waits a few seconds before he wakes Freddie up, once again we see so much love in his eyes for what he considers a brave beautiful man with a lost soul. he desperately wants to help Freddie.

I also really love the shot of Freddie returning to the house after spending a longer time in the jail cell. PTA used an extreme long lens, my guess it must have been like 400mm. In a very painterly way they frolic on the front lawn, apologizing for their outbursts.

The production design of the last scene of TWBB was inspired by 'A Clockwork Orange' (PTA said it in an ASC article). I'm wondering how many of you guys feel that the design of the final scene (not the last shot) of The Master was inspired by 2OO1? That whole room exuded 2OO1 to me. It was shot/composed/blocked so hypnotically. The lighting behind Master is what really set off that idea to me...There's so much to say about that last fucking scene...can't wait for more viewings...!

Clood is talking about how the window behind Master in the second to last scene pretty much exactly resembles the floor in the last scene of 2001:

Listened to the Filmspotting podcast on my way to work this morning. One thing that was mentioned that I didn't catch on to or haven't seen mentioned as I casually scroll through Master summaries while at work, was that Freddie may have been impotent. He is completely obsessed with sex but never actually has any. As mentioned in the podcast he falls asleep at the dinner, He has an innocent relationship with a young girl and turns away the advances of Dodd's daughter. It's not until the end of the film he actually has sex. So maybe the Cause helped Freddie or as much as Freddie wanted to be helped.

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If you think this is going to have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention.